SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Nirvana and Pearl Jam: Seattle’s music revolution remembered
Sep 20, 2011, 11:42 AM | Updated: Sep 21, 2011, 8:36 am
By Josh Kerns/97.3 KIRO FM
“With the lights out, it’s less dangerous. Here we are now, entertain us.”
The line that blew open the music world still resonates on the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s seminal album “Nevermind.” And it’s still having a tremendous impact two decades later.
“Those songs are so powerful, there’s so much emotion in them that even two decades later they have resonance with anyone that listens to them,” says Charles Cross, Seattle-based author of the Kurt Cobain biography “Heavier than Heaven.”
It’s why the Experience Music Project has dedicated so much to celebrating Cobain’s legacy, from a groundbreaking exhibit to Tuesday night’s all-star concert (STREAM a the rebroadcasted show from EMP) featuring artists like Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic (Billboard Magazine has an interesting Q&A with him on the anniversary,) Former Guns and Roses and Seattle icon Duff McKagen and numerous others recreating the “Nevermind” album.
But Cross says the legacy is more than just nostalgic. He says the music continues influencing new generations as well.
“I, as an author, get e-mails everyday from people in other countries who can’t even speak English and yet Nirvana and certainly Nevermind had a great impact on people of all ages and of all cultures. And I think that speaks to the power of the music.”
But 1991 is being celebrated for more than just Nirvana. It also marks the 20th anniversary of Pearl Jam’s debut LP “Ten”, which is captured along with the band’s entire history in a new documentary by filmmaker Cameron Crowe that premiered Tuesday night at Seattle’s Cinerama.
And along with Alice and Chains and Soundgarden, Seattle Weekly Music Editor Chris Kornelis says the period solidified Seattle as an epicenter of the music world that hasn’t been replicated since.
“No other city has been as closely identified with a musical movement or just being a music town the way Seattle has since 1991.”
Listen to Seattle Weekly Music Editor Chris Kornelis on the legacy of Nirvana and Pearl Jam
There were plenty of efforts to duplicate the Seattle sound and scene elsewhere, but Kornelis says it was the region’s unique geography and independence that made it possible. And it wasn’t deliberate.
“Seattle was a secluded part of the country. What was going on up here was insulated from the rest of the country.” Kornelis says that allowed bands to create a unique sound and culture uniquely its own.
While Seattle will forever be stuck with the “Grunge” moniker (although many will argue there was a significant diversity amongst bands and no singular sound), the independent Seattle spirit spawned by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the others is still being felt today.
“I think there’s a really strong scene right now,” says Cross. “It’s very reminiscent of when local bands were making it big,” he says citing bands like Fleet Foxes, the Head and the Heart and others.
Kornelis says he still sees the influence whenever he travels out of town.
“When I was in Madison, Chicago, these Seattle records are prominently placed all over,” he says. And he says that would never have happened without Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the rest.
And while Pearl Jam continues putting out great music, we’re left wondering what would have been when it comes to Cobain. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t still be making amazing music.
“He has a very small catalogue, but they are all winners,” Kornelis says.
“In some ways, one of the reasons we’re talking about him is because he’s the last great rock star,” Cross says. “Since his death there has not been somebody that’s combined charisma and talent the way he has.”
